The Thruway Authority could vote as early as this month on the toll hike -- though officials acknowledge that a study about the impact it will have on commercial traffic is not yet finished.

Executive director Thomas Madison Jr. says the proposed increase would solidify finances at the Thruway Authority, which receives no state funding. The hike would affect trucks with three or more axles, and raise as much as $90 million or more per year.

"Our goal is always to keep tolls as low as possible," Madison says. "These trucks cause many thousands of times more damage to the system ... yet today, they pay only five times the rate of the average passenger vehicle."

Businesses have railed against the plan, which they contend would either cut into their profit or raise the price of goods and services.

"They (Thruway officials) refuse to face the music and acknowledge that New York’s businesses are 100 percent against this anti-business tax," says Assemblyman Steve McLaughlin, R-Melrose.

Madison says no date has been set to vote on a toll hike. A mid-summer Thruway bond offering made the toll hike appear all but a foregone conclusion.

"While the authority cannot with certainty predict the outcome of this process, the authority has no reason to believe that commercial toll adjustments will not be implemented on Sept. 30, 2012, substantially as proposed," the agency said in bond papers.

The Thruway Authority is facing a decline in business, thanks to the recession's impact on business output and family vacations.

At the same time, Madison says, the price for asphalt went up 90 percent starting in 2009; diesel went up 68 percent; steel went up 35 percent.

The Thruway has raised tolls in 2005, 2008, 2009 and 2010, according to an audit by State Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli. Before that, there was a 17-year gap with no increases, Madison says (though the state initially intended for the Thruway to have no tolls at all).

"The average five-axle truck from Albany to Buffalo has a toll increase of about $27. If that truck is carrying 9,000 gallons of milk, it's a very small amount ... to keep our roads in a state of good repair," Madison says.

John Bryan, CFO of the Thruway Authority, says he doubts that many trucks would stop using the Thruway and use alternate routes to get to their destinations.

"The toll increase is the first item out of the box, and we're not taking a look at the expenditure side," Briccetti says. "So many manufacturers will be negatively impacted by this."

Madison says he is actively cutting costs, including vacant positions and overtime. He says a toll increase must happen for the Thruway Authority to maintain bond ratings.

"We're in the business of running a billion-dollar business, essentially, not to make a profit, but just to balance the needs of the system," Madison says. "Commercial vehicles represent the single-greatest demand, generally, on New York state's infrastructure."

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